Book Review
Title: The Coffee Book - Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop
(2nd ed.)
Author: Luttinger Nina and Dicum Gregory
Publisher: The New Press, 2006
Following the first edition of The Coffee Book by the same authors that was
published in 1999, the second book: The Coffee Book - Anatomy of an Industry from
Crop to the Last Drop was published in 2006. This book narrates the history of
coffee and documents the rise and fall of the Coffee Industry along with its ancient
propaganda as a commodity that inspired fervent competition in the economic and
political scene.
The first chapter starts from the historic beginning of how coffee evolved from being
traditionally eaten as food for fuel by the nomadic mountain warriors into the highly
traded and consumed beverage it is now. The early users of coffee valued it more as a
medication than a beverage. Coffee grew in popularity and once a monopoly of the
Arab world it slowly fell into the hands of different people who made its fateful
spread that changed the world socially and economically.
The book also briefly mention the establishment of the International Coffee
Organization (ICO) and how the International Coffee Agreement (ICA) came into
force in 1962 as an attempt to control international coffee prices. In present day, the
role of ICO (2007) has changed, it is now more of a forum for intergovernmental
consultations, a platform to request more transparency and information concerning
the trade of coffee, as well as an organization promoting sustainable coffee economy.
During the seventeenth century, extensive cultivation was being carried out by the
Dutch in their quest of becoming a dominant power in the coffee trade and that led to
brutal enslaving of its natives. Continuing from the colonization, supply and demand
for coffee rapidly increased as well as the number of slaves that were imported to
work in coffee plantations. This social class shift in French Haiti during the
Title: The Coffee Book - Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last Drop
(2nd ed.)
Author: Luttinger Nina and Dicum Gregory
Publisher: The New Press, 2006
Following the first edition of The Coffee Book by the same authors that was
published in 1999, the second book: The Coffee Book - Anatomy of an Industry from
Crop to the Last Drop was published in 2006. This book narrates the history of
coffee and documents the rise and fall of the Coffee Industry along with its ancient
propaganda as a commodity that inspired fervent competition in the economic and
political scene.
The first chapter starts from the historic beginning of how coffee evolved from being
traditionally eaten as food for fuel by the nomadic mountain warriors into the highly
traded and consumed beverage it is now. The early users of coffee valued it more as a
medication than a beverage. Coffee grew in popularity and once a monopoly of the
Arab world it slowly fell into the hands of different people who made its fateful
spread that changed the world socially and economically.
The book also briefly mention the establishment of the International Coffee
Organization (ICO) and how the International Coffee Agreement (ICA) came into
force in 1962 as an attempt to control international coffee prices. In present day, the
role of ICO (2007) has changed, it is now more of a forum for intergovernmental
consultations, a platform to request more transparency and information concerning
the trade of coffee, as well as an organization promoting sustainable coffee economy.
During the seventeenth century, extensive cultivation was being carried out by the
Dutch in their quest of becoming a dominant power in the coffee trade and that led to
brutal enslaving of its natives. Continuing from the colonization, supply and demand
for coffee rapidly increased as well as the number of slaves that were imported to
work in coffee plantations. This social class shift in French Haiti during the
